ENOUGH with the GIRL BOSSES!
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Rey Skywalker is coming back to the big screen to rebuild the Jedi Order, and Captain Marvel is back and this time there are 3 of her! When one boss girl will just not do. In this video I dive into everything wrong with the hoard of strong empowered female heroes that we are getting trampled by. And why they just don't work!
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In traditional narratives, the Girl Boss is a villain... The person who never grows, who already thinks they're perfect, who feels oppressed by society, who feels like society owes them, whose motivation is "I'll show them, I'll show them all!"
Well stated. The Girl Boss is like the guy who was born on third base and thinks he's hit a triple. In other words, the guy everybody else DESPISES.
Great point!
What's third base?
Spoilers for Avatar: The Last Airbender. Azula sounds like a great example(up until season 3, when it shows that she suffers from paranoia and that the probable reason why it didn’t show in past appearances is because she was surrounded by two friends that she trusted until they back stabbed her). If she was the hero in season 2, she would have been considered a mary sue but, because she’s the villain, it made her frightening and respectable because it seems like being a perfect character would work if they’re the villain because they’ll increase the risk of the hero’s downfall(which nearly happened when Azzy “killed” Aang).
Wow, that’s a great point! Voldemort, (early) Vader and so many more classic villains fit that pattern, apart from often being male: precocious, arrogant, unwilling to grow. The sense of entitlement has shades of what Jordan Peterson calls the “evil brother/uncle” (consider Scar in Lion King and Jaffar in Aladdin) who thinks “I’m so clever, I deserve what the king has, and I shouldn’t have to earn it, it should just be given to me”. Of course in our current clown world, the audience is supposed to cheer when it IS just given to this narcissistic nightmare, rather than recognising at some deep level that this goes against nature and leads to disaster.
Kill Bill 1 and 2 is also another great example of a strong female character that EARNED all of her skills and power and displayed how influential the other male characters were
So weird to me that all these woke idiots have completely forgotten about the Kill Bill films lol
Kill Bill is the only live action anime thats done properly.
Yeah, but show those to the zoomers and all they’ll get out of it is “it’s a story about an abusive husband!” And won’t be able to understand why The Bride had to do all that stuff when she should have just gone up to Bill at the start of the movie and killed him. Participation Trophy Generation will never contribute anything because they’ve been handed everything they have their entire lives.
@@ArtfulDodger566 kill bill is not anime, it's Chinese kung fu revenge movie
@@boboboy8189 doesn't she go to Japan to have her sword made?
the worst part about the whole "girl boss" thing is that they are exactly the male characters they claim are toxic and no good
Ignore the gender for a while and focus on the character, then you'll see how toxic it is.
Masculinity is only bad when its done by a penis and testicular. Lmfao.
Masculinity is only bad when its done by a penis and testicular. Lmfao.
Masculinity is only bad when its done by a penis and testicular. Lmfao.
Masculinity is only bad when its done by a penis and testicular. Lmfao.
In fairness to Rey, she studied how to be a Jedi on Skillshare. And everyone knows that learning things off the Internet is just as good as learning them in the real world.
Damnit this comment got me 😂
LOL
Bro you probably just inspire more people than the last 10 Marvel movies.
This is a very smart way to do an ad. Organic, straight to the point. Nice done
I died from this Nice
Mary sue characters are not relatable. They're the ultimate caricature. No man or woman is able relate to them, as they're perfect beings without flaws.
Funny thing is, at least the Gary Stus are likable, funny, and RELATABLE! Haha
Mary Sue characters only display their sheer ignorance and arrogance.
i wasn't sure how to express this. ty.
MA-REY-SUUUEEEE!!
What do you mean? Other women who know how powerful and strong and empowered and perfect they are, who have lived the struggle of a world that refuses to acknowledge their perfection, are able to relate to Mary Sues fine!
The irony with Bo Katan is: She already was a flawed and fleshed out character with contradictions, but then Disney got their hands on her.
Yeah Bo-Katan was actually a pretty good and respected character from The Clone Wars and Rebels.
Disney probably forgot she is a terrorist, played part in losing her planet twice and her sister killed, sold people into slavery, ect..
Yea I was actually really enjoying Bo Katan as a strong female character until she became a modern strong female character
@@peterand makes me fear for what they will do with Ahsoka
She even had a cool setup where she failed to get the dark saber, learned the path of the Children of the Watch, and then had to reunite the clans. That could have been an entire season worth of plot that they instead decided to wrap up in ~5 minutes.
If Harry Potter was remade now, he would be a minor character in his own story and Hermione would be front and centre in every scene showing all the boys, especially Harry, how it’s done. And she would definitely have to put Dumbledore in his place.
I read they already sorta did that in the movies by giving some of Ron's braver moments to Hermione and making Ron more of a comic relief.
I mean, she kinda did already? Girls are always shown as being smarter and more competent than their male counterparts in kids shows. Lisa vs Bart Hermione vs Harry Alex Dunphy vs Luke Etc etc
@@Burner-td4cushe was shown as book smart but harry was potrayed more clever. The trio had their strengths and weaknesses as well
And the worst part of it is Hermione in the original is both better magical prowess-wise than the boys and an indispensable part of the team, *without* overshadowing Harry.
@@Burner-td4cu True, but Hermione was also shown as a bit haughty and cocky especially in the first movie, and she was put down a notch.
As a woman, I want to see women with true feminine essence in media. Not women pretending to be as strong as men in things that men are just superior at by nature. It's not a bad thing to acknowledge, and displaying it as such is sexist, because it eradicates what our strengths are. Saying that a woman isn't strong unless she is portrayed doing all the things that are more masculine by nature is so incredibly backhanded. We can't replace men in their strengths. Let us shine in our specialities, that men can't replace.
So well said!
W woman
Glad there are women like you in this world.
My favourite female characters in modern movies are Rita Vrataski and Mallory Kane. Okay, Emily Blunt is just a straight up warrior badass in Edge of Tomorrow. But she's psychologically broken. She won the war but had to watch her romantic partner die 200 times. The world sees her as a hero, but she herself is jaded. Mallory Kane, I prefer. Because, yes, she's Gina Carano. Yes, she can beat up most men given her physical prowess. Yes, she can physically beat up most men. Yes, she's military trained and a private sector operator. But she'll still wear a dress and she still can't match Michael Fassbender when she has to murder him. She gets beat up before she wins. Just make it make sense. Like every MAN, A girlboss must BECOME.
Bingo!!! You know one thing I liked about Tolkien's writing... Elven women who sing and dance and work magic are more effective than the sword-swinging male Elves. Luthien dances and topples Morgoth off his throne. Her mother Melian (albeit a Maia, not an Elf) weaves a Girdle of protection around her kingdom that Morgoth's evil cannot cross. Arwen inspires Aragorn. Galadriel often strives with Sauron mentally, similar to how The Hobbit portrayed her.
Coincidentally, the girl boss era completely overlaps with the era of extreme money loss.
Maybe go woke, go broke? 😂
Wrong. Super mario bros has a girl boss on it and made a lot of money.
@@rapatacush3 because she worked with instead of opposing the heroes. It wasn't shoved down our throats that she can do everything even without Mario. Hers is what happens when you do the trope right.
@@rapatacush3 wrong. She didn't diminished nor bested Mario to be the virtuous preaching center of the movie. That's what girl bosses do. Example mentioned in the video AntGuy's daughter constantly diminished and bested him so she could be the virtuous preaching center of the movie. Get rekt woke guy xD
pure coincidence... I'm sure.
One of my favorite examples that you didn’t mention is Shang Chi’s sister. “I watched the boys train from a window and became better than them” 😂
Omg even as a fairly progressive person I cringed at that when I first saw it xd
Thank you! That was cringe AF!
@@allandm It's not progressive to portray women as superior to men. It's sexist!
man this make lost everything! lol!
She was SUCH a useless character! It's fine that her Father is a vicious International Crime Lord who has probably been killing people for CENTURIES!!! No he's a DICK because he won't train her to take his position!!!😂😂😂
I heard something the other day that made me laugh. It was something along the lines of “we praise masculinity in women and demonize it in men, while praising femininity in men and demonizing it in women.”
I think whether a character is masculine or feminine isn't a problem; I just hate when all the female characters have the same personality. I like Avatar: the Last Airbender because the girls (and guys) have different personalities and shades of masculine and feminine whereas I hate the recent Star Wars movies because all the female leads have to be British brunette badasses and it's boring, especially Rey who has to be better than the guys at some skills despite Han, Luke, Kylo, etc. having more experience in said skills.
Evangeline Lilly, I first knew her from Lost, I shared that meme on Fb. lol
The worst thing about the Girl Boss is that they’re not good icons for girls like the writers think. Instead, the Girl Boss teaches girls that unless they’re naturally gifted and are immediately better than all their piers without any training, experience, or effort, that they’ll never reach the same heights as the Girl Boss characters do in their story. That, and that they’re just as incompetent and useless as the side characters who do try and put in effort.
Hence why I love Katara from Avatar: the Last Airbender because she worked hard for her skills and gets called out by her brother and friends on her less stellar moments. I also like Bulma from Dragon Ball because while yes she's a brilliant engineer and inventor, she still makes mistakes and annoys her friends with her bratty behavior and her smarts are balanced out by her guy friends' strength and powers.
The only reason Wakanda Forever did 800M was because people wanted to see how the creators carry on Boseman's legacy after his passing. And I think we all would agree, it wasn't a very great movie.
@Donald Donald True, it’s the equivalent of a movie released in 1998 making about $300 million worldwide, a moderate hit, but nothing to write home about.
It's literal garbage
I wouldn't know.
Should've make Mike B Jordan the successor 🤷🏽🤷🏽
@Donald Donald in my country, in 2000's the price is $10 and today is $20. our currency also drop hard in 2018 which resulting price increase for $3
"They're always Dumbledore's granddaughter" made me laugh so hard
Voldemort's daughter was already bad enough as it is.
@@dereklopez9060 That play had every fanfic cliché crammed into it. The plot is almost as ridiculous as My Immortal.
@@Sorakeyblademaster37 I just pretend The Cursed Child didn't happened. It's so horrible, very unfaithful to the source material and the characters were utterly botched. Harry Potter himself got the absolute worst of them all.
Hmm
Ironically I'm pretty sure that was their inspiration for Rey Palpatine too 😂
Tony Stark : Proceeds to spend his whole life learning from his previous mistake, to upgrade his creations. Riri Willians : just casually achieves things in her adolescent age, that took Tony his whole life to Master, without forgetting the sacrifices that came with it.
and if you this to the said creators, you are apparently racist and sexist like ????
🙄
Riri would of never achieved that without Tony Stark.
@@TheCreatorNFEI bet money you're black ⚫️
Also he was a billionaire who had all the money to prototype & fail and prototype again and again. It’s just not realistic a college student could be making that kind of money
I think of Galadriel from LOTR FOTR. When the fellowship was first in her precense they all immediately revered her. She didnt pander to them or patronize them in any way. She was there to guide them and lifted them up to endure the journey ahead. Her power and strength was implied and her feminine grace made her one of the most iconic characters in all of LOTR lore.
Writing in 2023 (by female script writers ofcourse) would have made sure that atleast 10 other characters will say your comment at different time stamps in the movie, praising her, as if to spoon feeding the dumb audience members. Silent brainwashing tactics performed by Hollywood.
she's not a main character tho, she's a paragon, a wiser, older, more powerful character who has already completed their growth, and helps the hero(es) on their journey.
@nocrtname yea that's true but the same theme carries out with all the other supporting female characters. They are strong, capable, and powerful without having to say hey men look how powerful I am, let me bring you down a peg to show you how strong and independent I am. "If you want him, come and claim him" *Unsheathes sword*
Modern feminists don’t like femininity.
I think of eowyn. True badass. Not perfect but she has spirit and fights and triumphs and when she does that scene of removing her helmet and whooping that witch kings ass it is so satisfying.
The only way they think they can make a female character is if they have her being obnoxious and dismissive to all those around her. Because apparently strength of a character for them isn't to try and build your own character but to make everyone else around her bad.
This strategy is like that of a virus... take over an existing, functional organsim (Intellectual Property) and spread, grow, multiply (promote your ideology, story, character) even at the detriment of the organism (intellectual property).
Or dumber... or weaker... or lazier... or less serious... the contrast has to be glaring. There can be no doubt of how much better she is than her male counterpart.
Indeed, because belittling everyone around them is what a truly virtuous person does to prove how much more virtuous they are!
It's all feminist movie porn tbh. They want a Ripley without going through the work to create a Ripley character. The ideology is so radical nowadays that they'd ruin Ripley if they were to remake Aliens. She'd be turned into a girlboss without any development because she's special as is and all the guys would lose 20 IQ points.
they just took all the traits from a "toxic male", gave them to women, and called it empowerment
You forgot Tom Hiddleston's Loki, who was completely emasculated and made into a side character and his own movie to push a female Loki who somehow taught herself Magic
I talked about Loki at great length in my "Why Marvel Phase four sucks" video. Check it out!
Why did Marvel start out so great and then become so terrible?
Okay, hi, comment from two seconds ago
@@tommoore2012 Disney and Leftism
@@tommoore2012 There really is a super villain named “Suck Ass The All Naughty” here in the real world. His minions have infiltrated everything good to sabotage it from the inside.
The only girl lead that I have absolutely loved has been Katnis from The Hunger Games. She’s been through suffering. She learned her skills from her father and has kept using them to help her family survive, win the games, and win the war. She wasn’t perfect and the writers made sure to focus on that. She didn’t always know how to act, what to say, or what to do. Like when Peeta was liked more by the capital and Gale stepping in when they revisited district 12 after the bombs.
They went from small starving girl in the books to tall well nourished woman in the movies. AKA girl bossed her up
And she wasn't some all powerful being, she was quite vulnerable and a pawn caught between the power struggle plaguing Panem, trying to save herself and loved ones amidst a chaotic revolution. She was quite powerless, which is what made her struggle real and compelling.
@@cmdrfunka change which actually made it make more sense, as being semi-well nourished is the only way to build the muscle to be an effective archer. That's right kiddos, archery is really hard when you're small and malnourished. Just think of it a supplemental nutrition from the poaching if you find it hard to justify mentally.
Saying this as someone who doesn't like Katniss or The Hunger Games, I agree with you.
I think you summed it up perfectly in the end. Mary Sues aren't meant to inspire, they are meant to validate their superiority.
You totally nailed this. Whatever happened to the hero's journey? The hard path to redemption through trial and failure? The girl boss has no time for such inconveniences. . .
Women are born heroes. There is no reason for them to need redemption. They are perfect in every way. Just look at how western culture has perpetuated that message to women for the past 50 years.
@@ABC-sc2ip ...and just look at where it's getting them...in big fancy careers and an apartment full of wine and cats to offset the crushing hollow feeling that no number of Chads can fill with one night stands...
Not to mention that when they enter the conflict, it’s not because of their own actions that led them there, or because of the external forces, doing something to them, it’s usually because more of the fact that they’re just along for the ride.
It's like their story has to be rushed through like Cassie Lang Riri, even Shuri. All genius' with no reasoning behind it. Even Black Widow was introduced as this perfect assassin in Iron Man2, with her back story almost an afterthought in Avengers and Age of Ultron while Iron Man and Cap had very well developed stories in the form of origin movies.
that's why Spiderman is the most popular hero. Ma boy is a built-in character with failure and redemption (all of them, it's a canon event)
When Rey was instantly able to fly the millennium falcon perfectly I was like..... You gotta be kidding me
I was willing to accept Rey being a skilled mechanic and having an associated skill set, but being good at everything? No.
Not to mention she had near perfect accuracy the first time she handled a pistol.
@@hollowroxas4742 "sHe UsEd thE FoRcE!"
Not to mention, she somehow was able to beat a skilled and trained enemy in a lightsaber duel for her first time with no training at all is absolutely abysmal.
@@Pullmanfan7 Han Solo (from the same film): That's not how the Force works!
Fun fact When I started out writing fan fiction all my characters were Gary Stus until I actually tried listening to my readers point out how boring they were Now I'm an aspiring author and actually trying to write chapters with realistic development, growth and change as the story progresses
Are gary stus the male version of mary sues? Have to ask
@@averagecoasterenjoyer yes they are
Good on you, wish you the best! On that note, just a thought, I find it so odd that sometimes 'giving the fans what they want' is portrayed as something bad. I get it when it comes to uh, gratuitous stuff, but ... otherwise? It's like running a steak restaurant and then not serving steak to a customer who asks for it.
As pointed out by others: The writers don't seem to be able to make a good and appealing character without pushing someone else down. It always has to come at the cost of someone else's worth. "I'm better than you, and you gotta deal with it!"
One of the key aspects of being a writer is to READ. That way even if you haven't "lived a hard life" at least you have some perspective of what its like to be in certain situations. I haven't lived through a war, but I've read enough history, and historical fiction to know how fearful and terrified and paranoid everyone was, and still is BECAUSE of long past wars. The current crop of writers haven't read the comic books, or their own scripts. Its just passing the buck. There's 10 writers in a room and everyone seems to just add shit to a page as a "this is what I WANT to see because this is what I believe" instead of "this is what the characters would do, based on who THEY are and what THEY believe in."
@@valentinegonsalves7322 I think you got a very good point! I struggle to imagine that many of these writers have done a lot of reading, other than their own "works". The creators behind a lot of these modern adaptations of comics, video games and books have been littered with writers, show runners and producers with next to zero knowledge of the source material they're adapting.
@@valentinegonsalves7322the writers are females or misandrists.
It's a culture thing and I don't know where it came from. I grew up learning that you lift yourself up through hard work and that you pull your friends up with you and they pull you. Recently, I've met people who seriously believe that to get ahead you need to put everyone around you down. I've never met anyone like that until the past decade or so.
@@LemuriaGames That is downright depressing. Keep staying true to what you learned growing up, maybe you'll change the mindset of people you meet. If even just one person; it's worth it.
Disney doesn't know how to write female characters.
you could've stopped that sentence at the word "write."
All their characters are formulaic and stale.
They used to understand universal, subconsciously understood, Male-Female tropes though.
Disney has taken boy brands and forced them to be girl things.
Most people don't have ideas, ideas have people. The number or truly creative people in the world is very small. If you are going to insist on hiring people based on their gender, politics, sexual orientation, or ethnicity, you are going to end up with very well educated, very organized, very well spoken mediocrities. It's not an instant disaster. What it looks like is slow motion disintegration. All the products are produced and delivered on time. But there is not a hint of genius to any of it. Its just an increasingly dull, uninspired repetition of the past. Disney is a case study of the damage diversity hires can create in a creative industry.
The "girl boss" trope is the primary force that is sinking Hollywood and all entertainment right now.
That and the blatant anti-White racism.
You go gurl!
"Ok guys, get this; I'm thinking about centering our new film around a strong female character. What do ya think? I know, it's so fresh and counterculture." -Every Hollywood producer since 2015
@@Joe45-91 ….will she be independent?
They sure are, and I'm laughing my ass off all the way.
My wife used to work with a feminist boss babe. With her strong independent feminist girl power she ripped, humiliated and disrespected every woman under her authority. She let her narcissistic attitude get the best of her. Now my wife works with a male boss who doesn’t mix emotions into his job. He just plainly givers her instructions for her to carry out like the men she works with. She told me she’d never work for a female boss again.
True, im working with 95% male team and is really pleasant workspace, earlier i was working 50% male and women and ir was circus, all the time something drama, unspoked things etc.
I wonder if it might be directly related to fan fiction. The people who grew up writing fan fiction became the girl boss era writers and the people who like reading fan fiction are the ones who are hiring them.
I take exception to this: the current crop of writers are the ones who wrote Mary sue fanfics and never read any reviews and never grew up.
Yep, they haven't matured beyond writing with no one but themselves in mind into writing for others as well as themselves. I can agree with the writing advice of writing what you would like to read, but the outside reader should still be a part of the equation. I remember joking with friends back in high school about how we would force the writers of our favorite books or shows to make our favorite ships canon, no matter how anyone else felt. Eventually though, we matured and realized that we wouldn't want someone to do that to us and our writing and that other fans are allowed to have different likes and dislikes from ours. I feel like people who haven't matured into this realization are applying said immature aspirations into these media pieces now, basically doing the very things my friends and I would joke about.
Fanfiction is not always about Mary Sues, you know? So if they hired *good* fanfiction writers, we would've had good stories as well. But... ah well
@@readeroftheelderscrolls not all, not even most. Just enough for their theory to be reasonable
Can you imagine a person that looks at a flawless effigy of perfection and virtue and goes "omg, that's literally me"
Only one type of person does that: narcissists.
@@jmal I was just about to write the same thing but it’s become so commonplace to see narcissists that we end up seeing the comment we needed. I fear that narcissists are being normalized.
Yeah, shills, discord mods, people with agenda/woke activist, tik tokers, KZheadrs, the media, people in denial, etc.
I finally pinpointed what makes me so uneasy about the 'girl boss' in media; it is literally the over-the-top white savior character, but instead of being a perfect white man saving the savages and overthrowing the 'evil', its the perfect female saving the world and forcefully reprogramming the 'evil'. Both are gross, both are WRONG, but one is being demonized and the other worshiped. At least it lets you know what the people who go 'literally me' think about those who have different ideals from them
Don't you know all women are 10s
The irony is that the foundation of the Girl Boss is the exact behavior that if coming from a man is deemed toxic.
If it's ironic it's only because that caricature is actually how they see make heroes. The insufferable bitch is how they view positive male role models, but grafted onto a female. It comes down to a fundamental self contraction: women are the same as men (can do anything as well as men can) but also women are better than men (hence not having flaws or weaknesses).
Apparently it's only OK when it's them being the toxically masculine ones.
Actually find the word Girl boss demeaning more than empowering. You wouldn't say Boy boss 😂 It's almost like a troll word at this point. I get why the word got popular about taking a stand etc but yeah it's pretty toxic now.
Ye
@pnorbert2222 "It was refreshing to have a show let a woman with power be a horrible person" Trust me if you've ever paid attention to real life politics before Veep there were many examples to choose from 😂
Fans now miss how well Wanda and Natasha played their characters in MCU before it turned into M-She-U.
Excellent video!! its not that people "hate women empowerment" we hate this fake narrative that "girl bosses" are flawless and better than you in every way so just get out of the way. We want heroes that we can look up to not bullies.
Mary Sue HERo journeys do have one huge inward struggle they have to overcome: they have to come to grips with how awesome they really are.
And only one real outward struggle: MEN. If only men didn't exist the world would be perfect!
The inner struggle is always overcoming anxiety/impostor syndrome while the outward struggle is the toxic males making her feel insecure/anxious in the first place. It's so tiresome.
Like in Captain Marvel, where she kept realizing she's more powerful than she thought.
I couldn't believe the Heman reboot when Teela's greatest fear is that she is too powerful! wow! what a relatable fear, and what an amazing hurdle to overcome!
@@Krucifus She would've been a true Mary Sue who would've 1v1ed Thanos at the end of Endgame if the fanbase didn't complain about her.
I grew up in the 90’s and 2000’s, and the girlboss stereotype was already taking root then. I was a pretty feminine girl, and watching most media made me feel there was something deeply wrong with me because I wasn’t aggressive like the “strong female characters” they lauded. It’s been taken into overdrive in recent years, but its not a totally new phenomenon. I just wish they would give us a diversity of characters. It’s okay if there are some female characters with more “masculine” traits. But most women are not like that. What’s wrong with having more feminine women on screen? Galadriel was one character I loved because she was competent, but also distinctly feminine. Plus, although LOTR had Eowyn (who was a “strong” female character done right), it also gave Arwen. One thing I liked about Ahsoka is that although she was definitely physically strong (as you expect a jedi to be), she still had feminine traits, like a love of children, and an emotional concern for her friends.
Absolutely agree with you. As a man I too enjoy different types of female characters. There’s plenty of different type of male characters to relate to but man, they’re really making modern female characters 1 dimensional and lately that dimension is “unlikeable”
I'm a guy and also grew up in 90's and 00's (in Finland), and I also remember hearing alot how "men need to show emotion and do housework and wear pink generally be more feminine, and that's REAL masculinity, and that's what women want... and women can be strong and independent bosses and girls don't need to be girly and bla bla..." Spice Girls was one huge push for "Girl Power" for young girls and then later Sex & The City gave horrible role models for that same generation.
Essentially they want women to be a stereotype of men that doesn't really exist either. So they make unrelatable characters based on assumptions and cliches and as a result get characters that do not look human
They also made her somewhat feminine in how she fought, such as against Maul. Maul was clearly physically stronger, just as Ashoka was clearly faster and more agile Unlike Rey who just brute forces her way through without half the skill of either character I mentioned
Have you by chance watched Dragonball Z? Chichi has her hands full to make sure her husband does not do crazy shit and her son gets formal education instead of training all day so he can blow up bigger stuff! She was the only one there activly keeping the household together!
I’m genuinely surprised how I didn’t correlate girl bosses to power fantasies
Well done, you've perfectly summarized why I can't abide most of the strong female characters that dominate the landscape today. It's not all strong female characters, just poorly written ones that haven't earned their strength.
I think the irony of the push for flawless girlbosses in recent years is that it makes the flawed male characters stand out favourably by comparison, even when Hollywoke does its best to mock and shame them for being male.
Exactlyyyy!!
The irony though😂😂
I'm pretty sure male Mary Sue characters existed too. Nothing to do with woke, but it's the way they were written.
@@triadwarfare hollyweird expecting people to take Mary sues seriously by the sole merit of being a woman or gay is what makes it woke. Has there been a Gary Stu that wasn't mean to be ironic or satirical?
@@triadwarfare imo Superman is the closest to that, i've never been a fan, but even he has flaws and wants to fit in with normal people - he doesn't go around preaching about injustice
You've just made me realise that all those online 'writers' of old who wrote Mary Sue characters have now grown up and somehow gained enough credibility to put their ideas into actual movies and shows
they don't have to gained enough credibility, they just need to be female so they can brag about how their team is full of woman.
💀
Yes. What you see today is awful writing, because "mary sue" style is a poor writing flaw that exists in nearly all fan-fic. Which is understandable as fan-fics are written by regular people that aren't writers, don't understand good/bad writing, and simply see the "story" through their own myopic eye. It's crazy that these awful writers are now populating big budget movies. But step outside of these terrible girl boss movies. Have you taken a look at television shows of today? Most are also written terribly. I can watch 70s and 80s television shows, that I remember being middling to just slightly above average (nothing really special) and see actual depth to characters, interesting angles on story lines, and genuine drama that doesn't always end happily.. Those shows would never happen today, and if they did they'd look like the best show you ever saw compared to what passes for TV today. None of the modern shows feel relatable in any way because most of them are filled with awful writing, awful acting, and activist story lines.
Nepotism can only go so far, they intentionally found subpar writers
they didnt gain credibility so much as a cunning method of progressing by way of threatening others
Carol Danvers is a great character in the comics, and her relationship with Mar-Vell (the male character) is essential to her character. Alas, Hollywood has gone totally ideological and has abandoned good storytelling.
In the 1984 Dune movie one of my favorite lines that I remind myself of every time I deal with personal growth comes from Duke Leto when he speaks with Paul in the beginning. "I'll miss the sea, but a person needs new experiences. They jar something deep inside, allowing him to grow. Without change something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken."
Oh man, River from Firefly is exactly how you can make a girl weapon. Broken, looked upon by some as an object, but strong and powerful still, yet showing emotion, grace, beauty, and even scaring the good guys while not overshadowing the main characters, but supplementing them.
It was well written and minus some agenda we are inundated with today.
IMO I would say Dollhouse was a better example of strong women and a better role of Summer Glau's.
@@RENEG4DE4NGEL Both.gif
Such a great show
River both needs and *accepts* help from her brother. No surly "Let go of my hand!" snarling like Rey, who don't need no man. Her arc is perfect because we see both ends of it - from weak, broken victim to avenging conqueror. Girl bosses today only want the last part, and are insulted by the first part.
"Reality, which is what young activists struggle with." That was brilliant
Any "Strong female characters" also made me cringe. Men and Women are not equal. Need more people like Andrew Tate to educate people on the truth
@@yololoyo7379 Idolizing Andrew Tate is a red flag that you're also struggling with reality.
@@pianopiano3037 oh yeah? Even Trump, Elon and Tucker Carlson disagree. They have been openly supporting Tate
@DOOMER312 and your great? We’ve all done shi before we’re human we make mistakes, shii I’ve robbed people but I’m not a bad person at heart I was just misguided
@yololoyo7379 if those are the guys u look up to, I can already imagine how u behave irl
As a writer, this is why I love fan works. Some of them take Mary Sues and fix them, giving them flaws and complexity. I'm doing this myself with a Sue-adjacent character (I say adjacent because she's technically not a Sue but she's rather close to it). Her good qualities are fine and I kept them as is, but I gave her two catastrophic failures in my story that both teach her that her skills and her intelligence can't get her everywhere and that she has blind spots she didn't notice until a situation arose requiring her to face them. I didn't need to give her more girlboss moments, her good qualities let her keep those big moments when deserved, but I made her work for them. That's how you fix it. Shame Hollywood doesn't understand that.
Expecting good female representation in Hollywood movies made by women is like expecting journalistic integrity in mainstream media: it's too good to be true
I’d like to see a crossover between Baggage Claim and The Critical Drinker. That would be the greatest crossover in the activism universe.
Baggage Claim has done some podcasts with Drinker, Mauler and others but not a video essay or commentary together.
Yes, please. Collaborate and rip apart some of this recent shite.
"It's never too late to stop being a dick" *she looks straight at the camera so the MeSsAgE is for the audience*
I have a hard time believing that that was an actual scene from an actual movie.
the writers should practice what they preach.
@@notusingmyname4791 ans so should cassie on th way she treats her father
@@CoryTheRaven Yup. I know Marvel has fallen a long way but I can't believe that dialogue was actually green-lit for a blockbuster movie.
@@CoryTheRaven I've said this alot about movies in the past 5 or so years. So much disbelief of what can be put to screen...mostly from Disney.
My favorite girl boss done right will always be Ripley from the alien movies. She starts out just one of the crew, but is forced through hell and becomes the badass we all know and love. But we see where she started, and see her growth. And even after all the growth, we can continue to see how hard she has to fight her own fear to be the badass that she is.
But that's not a "girl boss", that's just a version of a classic heroes journey. A somewhat naive character that grows and matures into a better version of themself when the situation calls for it. She doesn't assume she's invincible, she's not protected by plot armor, she doesn't talk down to anyone else unless they are doing something selfish or foolish. She tried to work with others when it makes sense. A Girl Boss tends to be an arrogant, entitled Mary Sue who can do things she has no reason to know to do and even condescends to her superiors. It's a poorly written feminist, wish-fulfillment character.
Code Geass the anime has a lot of girl bosses but they are not assholes because most of them are just normal ladies doing their job and doing their thing like hobbies and obssession with pizza. Well the anime has alot of fanservice but the fanservice is there to bring in the male audience
Mine isn't a girl boss but has tons of girl boss moments: Evelyn from The Mummy. Not only does she stick it to her family and society by becoming a scholar in Egypt, she retains her femininity and culture and plays those to her advantage. She breaks up gun fights, she 'borrows' the book, she translates, and best of all, she takes responsibility for her mistakes and gets down and dirty to fix things. Evie is one of my heroes from cinema, because she never tried to be anything other than who she was... and that is, a librarian.
I wonder if the same character was made today, will people still be calling her a girlboss?
@@Undomaranel good example 👏 she was feminine yet capable, but never overshadowed Rick in his role, and when she chided Jonathan it was deserved because we see the character is a bit of a dude (even then he never is shown to be stupid or incompetent)
I felt like applauding throughout this entire video. You NAILED IT.
As always, the eloquent explanation more people need to hear... Also, Jessica Gao - the lead writer of She Hulk - has explicitly referred to Jen *multiple times* as "my avatar", so... yes, absolutely a self-insert for the show, despite the character from the comics being, I believe, older than her. Also, thanks for playing that scene from 'Serenity' that makes me cry every goddamn time. Sean Maher and Summer Glau kill me every time I re-watch that film.
“It’s the worst thing ever when you open a script and read the words ‘strong female lead'. That makes me roll my eyes. I’m already out. I’m bored. Those roles are written as incredibly stoic, you spend the whole time acting tough and saying tough things.”-Emily Blunt. I loved her, by the way, in A Quiet Place I and II and Edge of Tomorrow. The female characters that she played in those movies were compelling and relatable because the plot highlighted their vulnerabilities, and the characters were in themselves not afraid to show their physical and emotional limitations and dependence on other characters to collectively come out on top against the villains.
Emily Blunt's western was awesome. The English. Best western in years.
Because two-dimensional characters are flat and boring. Showing characters that are real, with many facets both strong AND weak in their characters, and how they work to overcome the challenges in front of them is what makes for interesting stories. It also makes characters relatable as humans, instead of caricatures.
She was great in Sicario too.
Can just picture Rey teaching her students now: Rey: How? what do you mean HOW? You just do it, like this.. Wazahm! Kabloowie! See? Super Easy! Barely an Inconvenience!
Lol Nice Pitch Meeting reference 🤣
Wow wow wow wow!
I NEED to see that scene. LMAO!!!
Knowing things without having to be taught is TIGHT!
@@ResoluteGryphonno. That will never be TIGHT.
Monica Rambeau in the MCU is actually one of their better females(ignoring MoM Wanda is as well) and while she did benefit from her mother’s position, Maria didn’t seem like the type to raise a bratty spoiled child so I imagine she did have to struggle in life. Before she got powers in Wandavision she was a likable well rounded character that respected her peers for the most part.
I genuinely thought that Din was going to be the one to fulfill the prophecy of uniting the factions. He was literally touched by the Mythosaur. But I guess I should've seen it coming when they turned Din into a helpless victim against that thing that caught him and was draining him for juice.
I think one of the issues that also exists with the "girl boss" types is that they lack a concept of responsibility, the standard Spiderman with great power comes great responsibility line applies to more than just Spiderman. Take for example Tony Stark, he is an extremely powerful man with resources, tech, money and connections and yet he lives and acts irresponsibly and takes no responsibility for the action of his company only for that lack of responsibility to literally blow up in his face after which he realises what he's done and takes steps to fix his mistakes and be a better person. With a lot of the girl boss types it's all about living by your own rules and realising how amazeballs you always were and it never seems to be about being responsible for what you choose to do with your incredible power....
And what I think is most critical about Tony Stark, as well as any really well realized character, is that when they start trying to make things right, they don't become perfect over night. Stark still has relationship, trust, and traumatic issues that were central to his character over the Iron Man and Avengers movies. They'll get enough right to succeed in the movie, but it was just enough.
It’s almost as if they are writing out their own fantasy…
I’d say Azula from Avatar the last air bender was a real girl boss. Girl felt menacing throughout the entire series and even after the series in the comics, she tries to redeem herself and the Aang gang tried to help her
Azula is what modern girl bosses would actually be, a villain.
@@GeraltofRivia22 EXACTLY
Azula is just too OP tho, Suki spent months in a maximum security prison and was still agile enough to climb up a friggin wall to take the Warden captive
@@christianaguiare544 Naa Azula being so good made sense, she was a prodigy and trained her whole life to get to that level.
I strongly disagree. Azula was a badass boss with the greatest leadership capabilities and skills of anyone on that planet. She just so happen to be a girl. If you switch her to male they would be just as intimidating and terrifying, which is what made her awesome.
so underrated! deserves more views and subs! keep up the great work!
Being a "girlboss" is such a massive turnoff for me. I've rejected some girlbosses who somehow have the hots for me and they always, _always,_ have the same reaction: a look that says, "I am naturally awesome, how dare you reject me?! 😡"
Yup, same here. So bossy and self-absorbed that it makes conversations in a group super awkward.
@@wongscp1701 Every conversation is always positioned as an opportunity for them to tell you how better they are than you. It's exhausting to listen to.
no girl has ever wanted you. stop the cap
Same
@@jmal exactly and not only that girl bosses are very condescending.
Recently rewatched LOTR Return of the King. The female roles, as small as they were, were really well written!
Eowyn is pretty darn similar to the book in Return. Funny how it takes a man writing in the 1950s to get good female characters in modern cinema
@@sivad1025 Atomic blonde is worth watching, they actually did it right.
@@sivad1025 Eowyn is in the books ? Are you sure ?
Except for that "I'm no man" moment which has been mocked to kingdom come ever since.
@@twiska1402 That's a shortened version of what she says in the book lol
I really respect your intelligence, wit, and humor. You are a gifted creator and a credit to women around the world. YOU are a REAL girl boss. Rock on.
In bo katans defense, she fought in the clone wars and we see her as a part of the death watch and we see her fight for mangalore against maul. She lost her sister, the majority of her house, and her planet. I think she’s a little more justified I just don’t love it when it’s essentially become her show.
Who??? What???? Nobody even knows what you're talking about. You made the critical mistake of thinking real people watched this garbage show. Just FYI nobody has Disney plus.
It’s a true shame when true girl bosses like Ellen Ripley are constantly forgotten.
Or The Bride
Who? Ripley doesn’t sound familiar. How long after Katniss did this Ripley character appear? You know, because Katniss is the first female action hero EVER!
@@tylerskiss Modesty Blaise.
@@tylerskiss 😂
Ripley is my goddess 😍
'Just don't be a dick' It's too late. Just look at me. I'm such a dick.' 'It's never too late to stop being a dick.' Bravo. Beautiful dialogue. Absolute chills. It's so good.
Imagine somebody got paid a lot of money to write that dialogue 🤦♂
@@g00nther , if I was the boss reading the script, I'd go into a J Jonah rant: "HELLO? YOU'RE FIRED! THAT IS THE DUMBEST IDEA YOU'VE EVER HAD! AND YOU HAVE HAD SOME DOOZIES!"
I might be in the minority here but that interaction made me cackle audibly.
I saw this comment before that part of the video and I thought you were making shit up. Oh how wrong I was.
Wait !?! This is a true dialogue 😅...? "
that was the smoothest ad transition I've watched, good job Baggage
This is a really well done, genuinely hilarious video, wishing you all success
BG: "They're always Dumbledore's Granddaughter!" Except when they're Shiv Palpatine's Granddaughter.
...which sort of undermines the Girlboss concept, since they're only awesome because of their male forebear, IMHO.
Or somehow Snape's child.
Dumbledore is Palpatine crossover?
@@michaelsorensen7567 Well, Star Wars and Harry Potter are very similar to each other. The chosen one in a normal world learn that he has magic/force, got involve in a war that will decide the fate of the world, has an old teacher taught him magic/force and save the world.
I’m kinda surprised that the phrase “girl boss” wasn’t seen as immediately degrading. Like to me it’s always had a ring of “well lookit here boys, this little lady thinks she’s a boss! Let’s humor her and see where it goes”
Makes me wonder how "Boy boss" would be received. Sounds pretty degrading to me now that I think about it. As a young inexperienced child trying to act as a boss, just sounds kinda dumb.
It is degrading... that's why it's in this video
@@icycloud6823 a boss baby … if you will
You just added a new line to my vocab. I cannot wait to use it the next time I put on my rugged jeans and dark hoodie and head out to the streets to cause malice and hajinks like an early 2000s highschool bully character
Always enjoyed you on Open Bar but this is the first video I’ve watched on your channel. Your insight, humor, and perfect Firefly references just charmed the pants off me. Subbed!
Nikita, a character scared to die at the kitchen scene .....surrounded by male enemies still gives me chills, but even scared she has the courage to fight back by using intelligence......forget a 007 female I want more Nikita.
Girlbosses don't go through the Hero's journey because they're already amazing. Just the way that they are, plus size.
Because women lack a concept of true heroism. Women who think they understand it have just used heroic where they replaced the name of some other virtue, such as patience. They love calling patience heroic or beautiful or brave. Makes it sound more respectably masculine.
There's no hero, so no journey either.
Yawn, the classic Hero's journey. So boring and over used. Especially by idiot internet geeks that think that's the only way to tell a story.
Well said. They don't go through the heroes journey as they exist primarily to satisfy a diversity checklist of empowerment. It's not enough that they exist---they have to be stronger than the white male characters. There's no doubt this shit is part of a political agenda that cares nothing for quality of films and just wants to push its propaganda in all our faces.
HERo’s Journey
Nobody really knows what's in someone's mind, but it seems you can always tell when writers are interjecting THEMSELVES into a story. The character just can't be made to suffer.
Ray Palpatine is Kathleen Kennedy's self-insertion. At least she got the Palpatine part right.
You literally described ever writer in history.
I remember the "I'm not Starfire" comic made Starfire's daughter an obese lesbian. Guess what the author looks like 😁
@@meoff7602 What do you read? Most good hero stories will at some point will drop the hero to it's lowest point... so they can then have the 'hero's journey.' Self-insert characters usually solve all problems instantly, and generally aren't brought to rock-bottom before winning.
@@fopeezy3097 Huge variety, couldn't imagine reading just a hero's journey. Again, that's just one way to write a story.
River was so awesome, her going literally into the Breach reminds me of Ripley in Alien. She chose to be a hero, because she couldn't' live with the alternative. Better to face the literal demons then watch people you love die. Great points, I wish we saw more heros like River, something to get emotional about.
-tears of joy- THIS IS SO D4MN GOOD! and the fanfic analogy... D4MIT is PERFECT! and would explain a he1la lot! As a former fanfic writer and angsty teenager I fought so hard to not insert myself in the fiction as I saw everyone doing left and right, I left because I wasn't even 16 and I was so absorved in creating content I forgot to eat, drink or sleep. Mad respect for KZheadrs who find a work/life balance!
When River stands up and says "My turn" it always gives me chills. The setup for this moment is so well done--and represented such a long hard journey--that the payoff is huge.
Exactly. there are ways to do a strong female right, even if you need her to be a ninja! just make sure she earns it, like any other character would have to.
It has an emotional component, it explains thoughout the movie why she feels so deeply about the cause and will risk it all to accomplish the impposible.I get the same vibe from Lotr in various scenes like Theoden gets ready to ride out of stronghold, sacrifice themselves to save time for the survivors to flee.
Same thing for Eowyn in LOTR. She (and Merry) kill the Witch King, but she ends up temporarily crippled, and damn near killed by it if she hadn't been discovered quickly. Courage proven in battle she can take her bow and grieve for her uncle rather than just magically march on to defeat Sauron with one hand tied behind her back as I fear might be the case in the coming LOTR remake.
Who's river... What movie is that
@@Cristroxx In the video above, she mentions River from the TV series Firefly. I'm pretty sure that's who Jim is talking about
Looking back, I liked Wanda in Infinity War, despite being flawed in so many things she was ready to sacrifice her love for the greater good. That's how strong of a woman she was not with power but with her mind and heart. I could feel her sadness when she killed Vision. This is how I want to connect with the female character; Humans, flawed creatures who overcome and thrive through it.
Yes totally agree
The best example for relatable transformation to a badass woman is still Natalie Portman as Evey in the film "V for Vendetta". Without any superpowers oder the need to be able to win physical fights (!), it is just about maximum mental toughness! Sadly something woke Hollywood has forgotten :(
This was a wonderful summary of a lot of what feels disappointing about storytelling in movies lately. Subbed!
As a guy looking at getting into script writing, there's one thing I can thank current Marvel and Star Wars shows for They're great examples of how not to write compelling characters It's my belief that every great writer is born out of something that other writers fail to accomplish
Please save us!!!
Is there anyone you have submitted your spec scripts to? I've just completed a manuscript and spec script for a story I've created, and I have an idea of whom I would want to play the main heroine (either voice or live action), but it's a matter of finding who is interested in adapting it.
mate you are 100% correct. After I saw the last jedi, I started writing my ass off.
Just read a book with that exact same character, she hates everyone yet everyone loves her for no reason, she's extraordinarily skilled for no reason and yes, her style is "different from the other sheep"
Name and shame it.
@@nicolaspace1182 The Scholomance Series, I tried book 2 as well and she doesn't improve lol 😂
@@10thletter40 lol, why am I not surprised by that?
I see the same trash on television shows... a character that treats everybody else like garbage, or is always making trouble for everybody else around them, but everybody else just goes along with it and exists solely to help or prop up that character with no redeeming qualities. Like, where does this EVER happen in the real world? If you are an ass all the time, or only ever think of yourself, nobody else is sticking around in your life very long. The only person that would put up with you would be your mom. Which is why I'm convinced these characters are written by snowflakes whose momma spoiled them. Out in the real world, people are complex. And they can simultaneously be a jerk at times or self-centered, but also have redeeming qualities of kindness, loyalty, funny, etc that cause people to think they are worth the struggle.
I though it was Hunger Games lol
Loved this video. I've never seen anything of yours before, but you earnt yourself a subscriber here
So refreshing to finally hear a FEMALE get sick of the girl boss era
You nailed it. The real problem with a Mary Sue is that it is lazy writing. It feeds parasitically on an existing world, built by others. It allows the author to just use all their own views and traits instead of creating different ones. It gives only an external, one dimensional obstacle to overcome. It’s fine for fanfic teen first time writers who need to quickly grow out of it. But it is astonishing to see it in the big screen even once, but to see it everywhere is a sure sine of the lack of quality control in Hollywood. There is no lazier writing than “I will just insert myself in an existing world and totally beat the bad guy so everyone loves me.”
Two of the greatest "Girl Bosses" in my opinion are Sigourney Weaver's Ripley from the Alien franchise (first two films) and Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor from the Terminator franchise (again, first two films). Both characters are far from perfect human beings like modern day feminine heros tend to be portrayed. They are both flawed and vulnerable but they are allowed to grow and learn from their experiences to become heroic figures in their own right. Hollywood seems to have lost sight of this and seem more intent on just replacing male action heros with their feminine counterparts, but keep making the mistake of making them Mary Sue type characters with no flaws and no capacity to grow from their experiences or learn from their mistakes.
Weaver's Ripley and Hamilton's Connor are Legends, but if you want a modern equivalent, try Michelle Rodriguez. Unfortunately, she's now the exception rather than the rule.
Both also relatable because they actually show fear and pain from the awful things they went through, which any real human would in the same situation
Sarah Connor... An AMAZING example feminism can only exist by destroying strong women(Terminator Woke Fate).
For much i like aliens, the fact that a woman with no training bested a whole platoon of supposedly well trained marines is beyond stupid.
@@rapatacush3 Ripley didn't BESTED a platoon of Marines. They were fighting and dying in the front lines against hordes of aliens while Ripley and others were in the control room. She SURVIVED. Besting and surviving are two different things.
This feels like gazing into a parallel universe where The Critical Drinker is a woman (Edit: and it's awesome)
Critical Drinker is such a Girl Boss
The Critical Drinker is not "awesome" on any level. Are you high? Dude is a hack.
You know it’s bad when girls hate Mary Sues.
I've put this quote in quite a few videos including The Critical Drinker, but it's very fitting in this day and age and quite relevant to what you discuss: "Activism is a way for useless people to feel important, even if the consequences of their activism are counterproductive for those they claim to be helping and damaging to the fabric of society as a whole." - Thomas Sowell
Sowell is a sage. It's true though that a LOT of this isn't just incompetence in writing and character development, it's plain ideological and political.
Just recently discovered Sowell for myself and gotta say, I’m very impressed!
Truth
True… Most of the time… Not all of the time… Activism brought about the Soviet Union! It brought about the US! Yes ofc there were other factors but at the end of the day those “useless” people are extremely important in making a difference, one person isn’t going to change much lest their gifted unreasonable amounts of actual power, but millions United under one ideology, empowered through each others actions in service of that ideology… Those groups are more powerful and potentially dangerous than most give them credit for…
TRUE. People of this day and age love to 'virtue signal' and think they are doing good but mostly they are just patting each other on the back and saying wow you're so good and smart, look how dumb those toxic people who disagree with us are, let's create more content to aggrandize our idealistic notions!
What’s crazy is that River single handedly taking down all the bad guys on her own is still unbelievable and yet because of what else they gave us we can accept this because we aren’t overwhelmed by the impossible Mary Sue. The flaws they gave her allowed us to want, accept, and cheer for that ultimate and earned girl boss in the best sense of the term moment.
yeah.. but remember it was slowly building up her character to that moment.. little bits of information.. the brother lying to crew about what exactly he did to save his sister.. if i remember correctly.. she didnt just wake up and started killing everybody out of the blue.. that battle is similar to gohan going SSj 2 after android 16's words.. he needed a push to reach full power.. like river did
goodwill helps with the suspension of disbelief. With something like Rey, it wasn't just the character was overly perfect, it was that audiences were aware of it in the moment. They weren't enjoying the ride enough to shut down. So they were aware when Rey was impossibly good at something or came up with a new force power. Similarly, they were aware when the narrative progressed by relying on the ground splitting in two or the rebels being saved by a crystal fox. Firefly and Serenity were likeable and - importantly - worked.
@@victorcates9330 I remember being in the theater during the Force Awakens and saying, "What the F*ck?" out loud when she used the Jedi mind trick on the stormtrooper. She went from "The Force is real?" to "You'll unlock me and drop your weapon!", in such a short period of time with NO ONE showing her even that she COULD do that. I was along for the ride (albeit a silly one) up until that point and that's when it began to lose me.
@@_travisimo I honestly was waiting for the storm trooper to just be pretending he was under her control so he could laught at her and say "did you really think that would work?", but alas, it didn't happen. It wouldn't had just been funny but also accurate to the level of training she had which was literally 0, and would open a chance for a future scene when she finally does make it work and it'd have felt earned.
@@Xx1devilgod1xX I like your idea but I still think it's absurd that she even thought to try it out, I mean how would she even know that was a thing, no one showed her.
Mary Sue comparison is so on point! These heroines always annoyed me in fanfiction. But at least it was amateur works often created by (untalented) teenagers. Now Mary Sue is entering the world of professional movie making. 😂
What a wonderful video. Love the River reference
One thing that I don’t think is talked about enough in all of these Girlboss/Mary Sue movies is that they’re setting an unrealistic expectation for the young girls they claim they’re trying to inspire. These movies make it out like you should expect to be worshipped and get everything you want. And that you should throw a hissy fit if you don’t
I've already seen it firsthand with some of the Zoomer women I rejected. Total girlbosses, if not real-life Mary Sues (sans the insane technical competence one is depicted to have).
You basically NAILED everything that’s wrong with Marvel and StarWars. Well said. And yeah, FireFly is such a underrated incredible show! That’s the type of storytelling I miss these days…..
I don’t know exactly why he’s out of favor I know there were some allegations and I know he didn’t respond. But that man knew how to tell a story
Y’all got to stop watching those. They get the money to keep making them because people watch them no matter how dreadful they are.
@@Princess_Feona firefly was long before the problems john whedon faced.. the show was canceled simply because it had low audience
@DaiMonon I’m well aware of that. It was canceled because essentially that’s Fox’s MO and they aired the original shows out of order because they already had no faith in the show. I brought it up because he’s a gifted storyteller and nobody really talks about him anymore. I didn’t really follow the details his cancellation. But a close friend of mine actually knows him and says he is extremely quiet and shy, not the kind of person that would publicly respond to anything like that. In the vacuum of his lack of response, I think a lot of assumptions were made. I love his work and chose not to really follow the accusations.
@@Princess_Feona Aside from the allegations (and hi from a fellow mr brown Alliance watcher, btw!) Joss told Disney where to stick it. That almost certainly earned him some powerful enemies... If you recall the awful, awful CGI opening to Age of Ultron (the start of the long downfall of the MCU, propped up only by the Russos, but somewhat on a foundation made of sand); it existed in part because of last-minute changes and reshoots/re-edits. He subsequently left Marvel (including the comics he was writing) and within a year joined DC to co-write Justice Leage and Write/Produce/Direct Batgirl.... He then stepped away from Batgirl, but was obviously brought in to re-finish Josstice League later on. Then came the 'allegations' in 2020. So having 'left' Warner, and previously having left Disney; given his main areas of writing are supernatural, superhero and horror (with the occasional comedy/musical), unless he can wait long enough for Netflix to hire him, or he has some vanity project up his sleeve to make as AppleTV or something independent, there are a few reasons why he's seen to be out of favour these days. With that in mind, Tim Burton is now back in people's good books, Tarantino similarly, so if he wants to he just has to wait for the wheel to keep turning and it'll cycle back around.
This should be taught in all Creative Writing classes. One thing that stood to me from this recent trend of female characters coming out of Hollywood is that they have little to no flaws. Strong writing equals strong and well written characters. Even with the most basic sitcom characters, they all have quirks and flaws alongside positive traits to make them balanced out. It is a double edged sword. If you focus too much on the flawed side or make them completely jaded and cynical, you end up with a one sided one note stereotype as much as the un-flawed Mary Sue trope. Of course time crunches, corporate/studio interference, and appealing the entire globe are likely factors in the result of underwhelming and often rushed writing. Either they are characters that are loved or hated by audiences or just pawns to satisfy a writer or an executive’s personal goals. Try to watch any movie, your favorite movie from the 20th century, from the Golden Age to the 1990s boom. There are many beloved and good female characters over the years I can mention. The Disney Renaissance female characters for example have a lot of well rounded characters. Compared to today, I feel like these companies are fighting some kind of movement in response to MeToo.
Nice job with this. Loved it!
This breakdown is fantastic. Another note is that with the massive self-insert these characters also ofter present cluster-b personality disorder traits. Often they are narcissistic and in other cases completely psychotic. Tells you a lot about the writer. Got to hit that sub button on my way out.
That is a good catch! No wonder audiences don't connect with them.
Sounds like Velma.
And that personality trait isn't perceived as a flaw within the story, either by the protagonist or by those who interact with her. The story itself doesn't recognize it as a flaw because it was an unintentional auto-projected character trait that even the writer doesn't see it. The funny thing is that when the audience points this out, the writer feels personally attacked and lashes out.
This is particularly true of Stephanie Meyer's depiction of Bella in Twilight. Even just a basic rundown of her psychological traits demonstrates extreme dependency issues, and an obvious case of schizophrenia (auditory hallucinations) that is basically just waived away as if it's no more than the love bug rather than a lasting psychiatric problem that needs treatment. I don't know if Bella was intentionally written this way by Meyer, but the message sent to girls by those novels is insanely toxic on page, and it leaves me wondering exactly how unbalanced Meyer is in real life.
@Mountain Nomad VFX you got this spot on. Out of the different diagnosis in the cluster-b personality disorder she shows almost all the symptoms of a borderline personality disorder all the way down to her fear of abandonment and her leaning unto self-destrictive tendencies. It being played up as the best way to live says a lot about the writers own mindset and possible issues, especially since it is so clearly a self-insert by the author.
Really makes me miss the actual strong women in movies. Ripley (alien) was the first i'd seen in movies, shortly followed by Sara (terminator) and i loved the hell out of them. "Girl boss" movies these days just make me cringe.
They even showed the price Sarah payed for being so badass in Terminator 2. She was literally committed but still works out obsessively because she knows the future. She is broken by knowledge. She can't even bring herself to kill Dyson when his son shows up. Just amazing character. The pain and hardship she goes through just makes her that much more of a great character. And she also doesn't need to bring down the men around her. Sadly that is become too common.
@Kristopher Prime There has to be challenge for a protagonist. Look at the downfall of the Die hard series. The first one was great. John was put thought hell. He was a limping mess by the end. Now he is a super hero and they are horrible movies.
Ripley was an ugly loudmouth. The Xenomorphs are "strong females" worthy of love and admiration.
Both of them (Ripley and Sarah) were great in the first movie, but the sequel damn!! on another level.
River's fight scene in SERINITY needed to be longer. She is such a great, well developed, character that I would have welcomed some more screen time in this moment. The music and the fight choreography just gives me chills.
Great work, keep it up!
A good female friend of mine, is a truly strong female character. She earned her strength through training, through loss, through Victory, and became a hardened warrior. But beyond that, she became a true hero. She never let this "girlboss" mentality take over her duty as a fighter for justice. Her name is Chun-Li, the Strongest Woman in the World.
Do you get a "kick" out of her? (joke)
Username checks out.
she is also extremely cute and ladylike and does not shy away from it
Please send us her leg workout program 🙏
Funny that these "strong" female characters needs to have a man based successful series/movie to show their "worth"
These girl bosses be like "we don't need no man", well sure - because you gals became flawless glorified men, not an ounce of femininity except for biology.
I love Baggage Claim. Thank you for these vids!
Leia, Ripley, Sarah Connor were all strong and brave... not by talking but through action.
Thank you for the love you showed River from Firefly. That's how a girl boss is done right. Someone else here correctly said that the attitude that you were already perfect and you were going to show everyone they need to know your already perfect is something only villains use to say.
Yep and Ellen Ripley from Aliens and Sarah Connor from T1/T2 are probably the best in my opinion. They are still feminine and still capable of mothering instincts; they are smart but don't know everything and still need the assistance of those around them; they are tough yet vulnerable and have character flaws that they struggle with throughout the films. They are the very definition of well written heroines that are interesting and, above all, believable.